1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method for coding and decoding three-dimensional data expressed by a mesh model, and more particularly to a method for coding and decoding geometry data included in the three-dimensional data.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, three-dimensional (3D) data expressed by a mesh model includes fundamental data, such as geometry information and connectivity information within a space, and also includes attribute information, such as vertices, colors of faces, normal vectors, and information for texture mapping. Also, for a precise (or highly detailed) 3D model, in addition to the attribute information, information on irregular distribution of points and any connectivity between points in a space is also included, usually creating a large amount of data.
However, a mobile device having a small amount of system resources (i.e., a small-capacity operation performance capability and a small storage capacity, e.g., memory) receives data through transmission channels with limited resources, and thus has a limited capability of processing data by itself. For this reason, a mobile device cannot code and decode a large amount of 3D data, i.e., a precise 3D model, using conventional methods. Accordingly, it is necessary to develop a new 3D data coding and decoding method suitable for a mobile device, which uses a smaller amount of system resources.